This week in the Slacktiverse, February 8th, 2014

(posted and compiled by chris the cynic, written by members of The Slacktiverse)

The Blogaround

Froborr wrote:

In The Slender Man and “Pinkie Apple Pie” I talked about the apparent appearance of Slender Man in a few frames of the then-most recent episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and shared a few thoughts on the role of intentionality in analyzing art and on the Slender Man in general.

And in Five Episodes I Like I gave my own top-of-the-head answer to [Five episodes of five different shows that you really like (the episodes, not necessarily the shows). Why do you like them?]

Storiteller loves music and wants to share that passion with her child. However, a lot of kids’ music is….less than awesome. After some searching for quality kids’ music, she shares some of her findings in Songs to Grow On: A Children’s Music Primer.

Last week Coleslaw wrote about a T-Shirt giving “Rules for dating my daughter.” I happen to have a shirt shop, I happen to think that I can do better than describing one’s child as property to be protected via threats and hate. So I made my own version.

And then everything seemed to go wrong. This is me losing hope when my only computer with convenient internet access seemed to die and I learned, after I put all my money toward Discover because I planned to make use of cash back, that Discover Card had closed my account weeks earlier and not bothered to tell me. This is me still felling pretty hopeless even after the computer turned out to not be entirely dead. This is me explaining why everything was such an emotional blow after multiple people pointed out that when it comes to donations it’s not my job to decide, “I’m not worthy,” but rather to give information on which people can decide for themselves whether or not to make donations.

And while that last one is still the most recent post at Stealing Commas, this –right here right now– is me with hope again.

My friend Viga is now successfully at college thanks to over $3,000 dollars in donations! But she’s still $3,000 short of fully paying off her tuition. Her gofundme is here, and you can get art for donating! (Details at the link.)

Content Warning: Bullying, Suicide, HomophobiaMichael Morones is an eleven-year-old North Carolina boy who was a target of homophobic bullying because of his fondness for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. He attempted suicide two weeks ago, and while he will live, he is not yet coherent. Doctors believe he probably has brain damage due to oxygen deprivation, the full extent of which will not be known for months, possibly years. His parents have stated that they do not wish to see the bullies punished, but instead want to create a non-profit to educate would-be bullies about empathy and the consequences of bullying. There is a gofundme originally created to help pay his medical costs. It is well over its goal, but the excess will be going to long-term care for Michael (if needed) and getting that non-profit started up.